The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 8 letter word AUGUSTUS
I've seen this crossword clue in The Sunday Telegraph
A
U
G
U
S
T
U
S
More clues leading to the result AUGUSTUS
- Emperor, initially awfully unwilling to get up to meet us
- Gold … bunch of wind … American statesman
- Eminent American ruler of empire
- Emperor, right away, foretells time allied to America
- Distinguished American statesman of old
- In the summer holidays, we founded the Roman Empire!
- Gold ... bunch of wind ... American statesman
- An emperor respected by America
- An unrivalled governor: unofficial supremo, then ubiquitous sovereign, primarily?
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "ruler of empire" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case ruler of empire = augustus.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.